This week on TechHive: Peacock to Fire TV users: Just sideload it

Jared Newman
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March 26, 2021

Eight months after the nationwide launch of Peacock, you still can’t officially download the app on Fire TV devices, and even Peacock reps seem exasperated about it.

On Facebook and Twitter, Peacock has been encouraging Fire TV users to sideload the app, a process that involves circumventing Amazon’s app store and finding a copy of the app to download from the web instead. The impetus seems to have been the WWE Network’s move to Peacock last week, which left a lot of wrestling fans stranded with no way to watch.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with sideloading—I’ve done it myself for Peacock on several Fire TV devices—but the fact that Peacock reps are encouraging it marks an amusing (or, perhaps, frustrating) new chapter in the ongoing carriage dispute between NBC and Amazon. For more details, and updated instructions on how to sideload Peacock yourself, read the full column on TechHive.

Weekly rewind

Amazon’s Fire TV updates: In other Fire TV news, Amazon is rolling out the software overhaul I wrote about last month to more devices, including the Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube, and pendant-shaped Fire TV. The latest Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick already received the update in December, and Amazon says support for the second-gen Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Edition televisions is coming later this year.

Once it arrives, your home screen will look a lot different, with fewer redundant menus and more ways to browse for things to watch. It also adds profile support system-wide, so each user can have their own personal recommendations. I think it’s an improvement overall, though the home screen is still a bit too cluttered with unwanted content (and unsightly banner ads) for my liking.

Amazon has also launched a new remote control for Fire TV devices, which is either good or bad news depending on how much you appreciate app shortcut buttons. The new remote has four of them—for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Prime Video—along with a button for launching the Fire TV live TV guide. The voice control button has also switched from black to light blue to match Amazon’s Alexa branding. Amazon is bundling the remote with its latest Fire TV Stick and selling it for $30 by itself, though I imagine it’ll make its way to other Fire TV devices eventually.

Netflix’s anti-binge experiment: Fans of the Netflix reality show The Circle will have to wait a while to watch the entire second season when it arrives next month. Instead of dropping every episode on the same day, Netflix will release four episodes per week over a three-week span starting April 14, followed by a single-episode finale on May 5.

Netflix has diverged from the binge model before, with weekly releases for The Great British Baking Show and Rhythm + Flow. The difference now, as The Verge notes, is that Netflix is explicitly calling this out as an experiment in buliding anticipation between episodes, announcing that it wants to give people “time to dissect and dish on every step of the competition as it unfolds.” While Netflix has yet to mess with the binge model for scripted shows, I wouldn’t be surprised if the company is thinking about it.

Vidgo review: Also on TechHive this week is my review of Vidgo, a $55 per month bundle of live TV channels. For better or worse, Vidgo reminds me of the early days of live TV streaming, when the apps were crude, DVR wasn’t a given, and large numbers of channels were missing. Vidgo’s user experience isn’t great, but it offers a strong selection of sports channels for the price, and there are ways to get around its lack of DVR service if you’re crafty enough.

That said, Vidgo is also subject to change in the coming months, as the service considers adding more channels and features. It’s a service worth keeping an eye on, even if you shouldn’t build your entire cord-cutting strategy around it.

Correction: While outlining the NFL’s deals with various TV networks last week, I got the details wrong on NBC’s plans to stream games on Peacock. NBC says it will stream all Sunday Night Football games on the service starting this year, not just certain ones. Peacock will also carry one additional game per year exclusively, starting in 2023. Apologies for the error.

More catch-up

Save more money

Over at Best Buy, Roku’s Streaming Stick+ is back down to its typical sale price of $40, for a discount of $10. And for $1 more, you can also bundle a month of the sports-free streaming service Philo. Just make sure to click “First month of Philo for $1” on the product page. (And don’t forget that you’ll be on the hook for Philo’s full price of $20 per month after that.)

Also, here’s a friendly reminder for Tablo over-the-air DVR users that the cost of lifetime guide data subscriptions is increasing from $150 to $180 on April 6. That means you’ve got less than a couple of weeks to lock in the lower price. (You can also grab a refurbished Tablo Dual Lite DVR for $80 while you’re at it, saving $20 off the regular price.)

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This week, I had fun writing about how you can cut down on repetitive typing with text shortcut tools, which let you type out entire phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs with just a few keystrokes. I also covered a neat way to practice your PowerPoint presentation skills, a new perk for T-Mobile subscribers, and a secure way to send information online. Sign up for a free trial, and I’ll send you the latest issue!

Thanks for reading!

Just a heads up that I’ll be taking a little time off next week, and so there be no newsletter next Friday, April 2. We’ll play catch-up on April 9 if anything big happens.

In the meantime, feel free to send me your cord-cutting questions, comments, and feedback.

Until next time,

Jared